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Since first starting working and creating posters I have become and addict to fonts and using them to communicate feelings and emotions. I often find myself looking and brands and logo and trying to decipher the hidden semiotics or meaning within the fonts. I decided to do my own little experiment. By having two coworkers who…

A. Use the computer daily

B. are female

C. are within the same age range

D. are intelligent

E. are my friends (Only a few people would like to take time away from their breaks for me)

I wanted to see how they viewed font compared to each other and compared to myself and the creator of the fonts. I should apologize now for the green ink, I don’t know what Person B was thinking.

Here are the real names of the fonts. All fonts were from Google and yes, they are all free!

1. Schoolbell

2. Lilly

3. Engagement

4. Lobster

5. Arizonia

6. Graduate

7. Punch Drunk

8. Flavors

9. Wendy one

10. Mountains of Christmas

What I loved about each person descriptions was how unified each person’s was. Person A used all NAMES while Person B used all ADJECTIVES. I happen to directly know some of Person A’s people of which she named the fonts after ‘Dexter’ or Mountains of Christmas is her sneaky beagle and ‘Brendan’ or Wendy One the ECON professor. She also used pop-culture references from Charlie Brown. I was amazed by her characters of each font and how for her, it directly related to a person in her life. Person B on the the other hand used terms and definitions almost for her font names and descriptions. She also happens to work in PR & Marketing at the College while the other is an Administrative Assistant. For both of their names for ‘Graduate’ they were spot on. Person A deemed it Varsity and Person B deemed it Collegiate.

I really want to show each person what the other said about the font so that they can see if each others relates at all. Is Person A’s people match the descriptions Person B gave?

It is amazing to see semiotics at use and the amount of detail and emotion a font can convey to different people. It is all perspective, and we all have a different one to use in learning.

Who knew how difficult this assignment would be. I have never constructed a photo essay before or taken groups of photos for a common cause.

Here I attempt to exposed my town’s negligence of tag clean up and the motive of a tagger through my own eyes and perspective. First noticing the crosses about 4 years I have since spotted them in other public areas and decided to explore the tagging more thoroughly. Why did someone tag crosses and ‘Jesus’? Why had they not been removed? By exploring the tags throughout my town I exposed not only the taggers possible motive but also a negligence of my town.

I thought of what Dr. Wolff said, “do not snap hundreds of images pick your shots wisely.” On a personal note, my phone has very limited space, leaving room for only 80 or so photos. My DSLR has room for thousands. As I normally shoot that way I wanted to try the challenge and I did for The Great Commission.

This is a Facebook group that aims to unite, share, and educate Saudi students in America. Two of my Facebook friends actually shared the post and it showed up on my timeline. I cannot say that I spent too much time on their page but the photograph caught my attention.

“The first image refers to pedophilia in the Vatican.

Second child sexual abuse in tourism in Thailand, and the…

third refers to the war in Syria.

The fourth image refers to the trafficking of organs on the black market, where most of the victims are children from poor countries;

Photographed by Erik Ravelo a Cuban photographer and artist he looks at children in their world. Sometimes children are neglected, in the form of rights and Ravelo called attention to this. Reminds me a bit of Trachtenberg. The photo, titled the “The untouchables”, puts children on crosses of their oppressors. Each photo presents a clear, disturbing message. Placing them all together shows the injustice is spread worldwide. We hear about each individual story in the news or on social media but they are normally not brought together. It unifies. It shines a light. It promotes change.

Additionally the viewers or audience did not need to know the details about each countries specific issue to identify it. I was unsure about Thailand and the organ black market photos. However I was immediately about to understand using children for amusement, specifically with the bright floral shirt, cap, and I believe camera in hand of the male cross. These items signified tourist, amusement, something that I have often thought about when friends travel to island destinations. The shift children on the cross in scrubs made me think of surgery or unethical treatment. I was reminded of my mash up where clips of a doctors wearing those green-blue scrubs injected a beagle or danged a rat exemplified harsh and cruel treatment of animals to relate it to human testing.

These children may not have loud voices, or physical strength or knowledge to change or release themselves from their oppression. Without the photographers motive and interpretation all the issues would not have been brought together.

While I hate to bring my blog post back to where I work I’ll do it again! Occasionally outside companies bring our department their flyers to hang up. The gentleman who handed me the flyers was tall, muscular, and dark haired. I won’t name the company of which he represented but the organization encourages college students to join club sports teams and engage in their social parties. I was quickly amused at the company flyers, instantly thinking they were comical. He left and I placed the fliers in my ‘to hang’ bin and went back to my work.

A few days past and I hung grabbed that same bin to hang up all the posters for the week. I first went to the community board and grabbed two the company’s flyers. I stopped, thumbtack in hand and looked at them. I became distraught and angry. Instead of wanting to join the business’ teams or having fun at their parties I was disgusted by their image. Each image displayed the confirmation of perceived stereotype. In one hand I had a ‘thick’ aggressive looking field hockey player with her mouth guard sticking out of her mouth and in the other I had a thin blonde turning her back to the camera to show her back dimples and baseball jersey. Just these two images juxtaposed together made me feel as if girls who play these sports come from completely different backgrounds.

“Now you, pick up the field hockey stick and look at me with anger in your eyes. Be fierce, be bold.” I can hear the photographer shout at the mode. The female hockey player showed me a masculine or ’butch’ side of women.

And then, there is the sexy baseball jersey wearer showed me how women are used as models. Why would the girl appear to be participating in the sport?

“Roll up the jersey a bit and turn around but give of us a sultry look. You know what; roll it up a little bit higher.”

Additionally there were four other images other flyers with different images. One, featured basketball and another, dodge ball and football. These three images really got me thinking. Firstly, I have always thought of basketball to be predominantly African American. In fact, from the 2013 Racial and Gender Report Card: National Basketball Association, “African-Americans comprised 76.3 percent of all NBA players. Eighty-one percent of players were players of color.” I found it odd or misrepresentative that the player featured for basketball was a white male.

The PR department probably mulled that over for hours.

“He can’t be black. We can’t be racists, pick a white male instead. Good character, right?”

He seemed, to my own standards ‘good looking and kind’.

Compared to the basketball player, the dodge ball African American appeared dull and harsh. The man nonetheless wore gloves and held a dodge ball, a sport best related to elementary school. Dodge ball has been notorious for the game to pick on the weak and rally the strong, and game that separates. Ironically, a black male was chosen to represent this sport.

Then the next male model represented football. This model was ferrous, sweaty, mean, and ugly. His face showed pure anger.

The photographer probably told him, “Squeeze the football like it’s someone’s head.”

Showing me anger and dominance I felt nervous look into his eyes. He was strong and powerful and I being a small, 120 lb woman, would not be able to handle him if he chooses to attack- I felt scared.

The last image, which was juxtaposed right after the angry football player, was disgusting. Soccer was displayed this time. But the model… she wore no bra, exposing her nipples and her hips bones stuck out of her skin. I don’t mean to say she was overly skinny, but she certainly wasn’t hiding anything. Like the baseball jersey model she exemplified the female body as an object. Her sexy stare into the camera wasn’t one I’d see on a competitive player.

I was ashamed of these ads, astounded by the sexism and racism by six flyers. At first glance I laughed, but when I really examined them my secret semiotican came out. I decided to only hang up a few of them. I threw out the sexy soccer player, baseball and football player. I places the normal basketball player and on another bulletin board, the dodge ball and field hockey together. I didn’t want to showcase sexy, or rough. I wanted wholesome competitive, sport play. Of what that is now, I am not so sure.

Yes, it’s another poke-post. But this one is all about Eevee and what the eeveelutions say about you.

In all the pokemon games, spanning all six generations, the most coveted pokemon, even more so than any legendary pokemon, is Eevee. Because Eevee will evolve into one of eight different eeveelutions. Continue reading →

Once upon a time, in a region far, far away, there lived a plethora of animals that could only learn four moves. They were called pokemon. And they were awesome. Who am I kidding, they still are. Pokemon come in all shapes, sizes, and types: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and . Look at all those pretty colors. The colors add to the intratextuality of the game, but so do the appearances of the pokemon. Bulbasaur is one of the starter pokemon given to you at the beginning of the game. He is from the first generation of pokemon; the generation in which there were only 151. Without knowing his name, or seeing his pokedex entry, what type do you think he is based on colors and appearance alone? If you guessed you are correct. If you guessed I have to wonder how he looks like a bug…

On Bulbasaur’s back is a flower bulb. As he evolves the flower blooms. This is metaphoric gold on a semiotic level. The flower blooms because Bulbasaur has grown not only in size but also in experience. He has fought many battles and learned many moves (or not, it’s up to you). The flower on his back is a symbol of all this pokemon’s hard work. Continue reading →

According to this project by Tegan Harris, there are 5 main types of characters which gamers create to represent themselves:

the true self

the heroic self

the powerful self

the fantasy self

the random character

The “true” self, according to Harris, is a virtual representation of the player’s self-perception but may not equal the perception others have of the player. The “heroic” self is also a representation of the “true” self but with all positive or all negative attributes greatly exaggerated. The “powerful” character is designed to be effective within the realm of the game: gaining levels, completing quests, and completing the game. The “fantasy” character represents the “true” self but shows “aspects of the player… that are completely [unfeasible] in the real world.” The “random” character is not built toward any goal but it just an interesting choice for the player and serves as a distraction from the real world. Continue reading →

Originally, my intention for the photo essay was to attempt capturing photos of abandoned spaces in town in an attempt to show what my hometown had become, in the tradition of The Ruins of Detroit.

However, as I began going out and thinking about the photographs I was taking, and after a conversation with the professor, I began to rethink my purpose.

The professor had mentioned that as I was trying to capture decay, my presentation of the town would be incomplete without showing photos of the town doing well.

At first I didn’t think that this went along with what I saw as true to the town, a thought which lead me to my new proposal.

Truth is, of course, illusory. I cannot present any absolute truth about Riverside. So instead, I am trying to show the many things that a town can be.

In order to emphasize this, I am using disposable cameras I’ve altered with vaseline. By doing this I am trying to mess with the focus and clarity of the images.

This is a semiotic choice. As I mentioned earlier, truth is illusory. The vaseline/soft focus distortion is therefore an attempt at reinforcing this notion, the dream-like quality this adds to the photographs is hopefully realized as part of the illusion of being able to call any portion the whole truth.

I would like to explore the idea of “fun” through the use of portraits and collages. I was thinking about how my idea of a good time has changed since I was a child. When I was in elementary school, I loved to swing on our swing set for hours–I didn’t need to listen to music or play games while I did it, the swinging was enough. When I was in middle school, I started using technology more. My favorite thing to do was play games on the computer. In high school, I just liked to hang out with my friends. There was nothing greater than throwing a movie into the VCR (later the DvD player) and then ignoring it while we all talked on the couch. In early college, I watched as my friends went to the bars and clubs, but my closest friend and I preferred to go to coffee shops and read our poetry (I’m mortified just admitting that). Now, I enjoy a hybrid of going home and being out. I like going to the archery range but I also like to be home with a good book.

I would like to take portraits which show what a person does for fun (a musician would hold their instrument, a biker would be in their riding gear, a bookworm would be smothered in a pile of books) and then I would like to put that portrait on top of a collage that was taken by the subject. I would the subject to take photos (with the cell phones, their digital cameras, a disposable camera) of what they thought was fun at ages 10, 13, 15, 18, 21 (if they are old enough to) and whatever their current age is.